Cameron Faulkner describes himself as “a New York City transplant who’s lived in Brooklyn since 2012.” He continues, “When I’m not at work, I try to get as far away from my computer as I can (I don’t always succeed), spending time with my wife, 15-month-old son, and two cats. I enjoy walking around, playing video games, drinking coffee, and keeping myself busy with a never-ending list of tasks.”

He is currently commerce editor at The Verge, where he helps other commerce writers find good deals, edits their work, and writes about gaming accessories, monitors, and other fun gadgets worth knowing about. He is also the first Verge staffer to be featured twice on What’s on Your Desk — and here’s why.

When you first talked to us about your home office space, it was 2021 and you were working out of a studio apartment. What’s changed?

Yep, we upgraded to a space where I have my own office that isn’t five feet away from my bed. Now it’s 10 feet away. A studio apartment is like a furnace to forge your relationship and your organizational skills. While I succeeded at the relationship part, it was always a challenge to live minimally enough so as to keep things relatively clutter-free, especially since we also had two cats in the mix. Needless to say, I don’t particularly miss it — though my desk setup is close to the previous one as it was before. 

Could you tell us about your desk and chair?

The desk that I’m using is a Fully Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk, and it’s the kind of thing that I love because I never have to think about it, or clean it often. I encourage anyone who’s curious about a standing desk to give it a shot. There are some days / weeks / seasons when I use it while sitting, but it’s nice to have the flexibility to stand if I want to keep my blood flowing. I bought this desk from Fully before that company was acquired by Knoll, which was later acquired by Herman Miller. That said, the Jarvis bamboo standing desk is still available to buy through Herman Miller, but I’m not sure if its build quality and feature set are the same.

As if I haven’t already said Herman Miller enough, the chair is the Sayl from that company. It’s breathable and comfortable.

Insta360 Link

Where to Buy:

• $179 at Amazon
• $179 at B&H Photo
• $179 at Insta360

Here’s the long one: tell us about the various tech devices you’re using. (And please be specific about the model, etc.)

My tech setup has changed a bit since my last WOYD appearance in 2021, but mostly in incremental ways. 

I have the same dual monitor setup (the 27-inch Acer Nitro XV272U and the 27-inch LG 27GL650F-B). My webcam got a big improvement. It’s the Insta360 Link. I reviewed it for The Verge back in 2022, but the one I have is personally owned. I don’t take advantage of the gimbal or gesture-based controls as much as I thought I would — I just think it produces a nice, clean image. 

I also got a set of Kanto YU2 desktop speakers that have just the kind of minimalist design that I’m looking for. Those connect to my computer via USB, but also have speaker cable inputs for use with a receiver or a record player. Fun fact: they also connect via USB to my Nintendo Switch 2, and I enjoy listening to game audio through them when I’m having a quick handheld gaming session at my desk.

Kinesis Freestyle Edge RGB

Where to Buy:

• $199 at Amazon
• $199 at Kinesis

Do you prefer the split keyboard?

I’ll never go back to normal keyboards after buying this split ergonomic model from Kinesis. It’s a gaming keyboard, technically, so it has mechanical key switches and programmable LEDs under each key. I couldn’t find another split keyboard suitable for gaming at the time when I bought it (at least, not one with a design that didn’t look atrocious), and I’ve been happy with this model. The downside is that it’s now a lot tougher for me to find merit in laptop keyboards, since they quickly give me wrist pain.

Initially, most people I talk to about these keyboards are of the opinion that they’d never figure out how to use one, and that anyone who does is not from this planet. It does look strange, I’ll give them that. But I think that they’re a more natural way to type, since you can hold your arms and wrists more comfortably instead of contorting them unnaturally to type on a row-based keyboard.

I love that grouping of tchotchkes: the little plastic eggs, the 1960s-style timer, the sand art ornament.

Welcome to the fidget corner of my desk. The blue sphere that looks a little bit like the old AT&T logo spins around on a base. It’s so satisfying to hold and tinker with. The red egg is none other than Silly Putty, which I’m frequently molding into various shapes off-camera during calls. The timer is a Pomodoro timer, and I use it when I need some uninterrupted time to focus on a task (all thanks to this 2022 piece from Victoria Song that inspired me to buy one). Lastly, the sand art display was a gift during Polygon’s 2024 secret santa extravaganza. We all got together over Zoom and had a gift exchange. We had a lot of fun over there. Anyway, the sand art display is so soothing, and I love rotating it to see how the specks fall differently every time. It’s simple, yet beautiful.

Tell us about the poster with the two people (you and your wife?) walking by a decorated wall.

I realized at some point in the last few months that I have an abundance of open wall space and a bunch of photos that I love to look back on. So, why not put more memories up on the wall? The one that I chose here is a photo from our engagement shoot, which was taken in front of a graffiti-covered building that has since been bulldozed. I just thought it was a nice photo back in the day, but it has evolved into a reminder that things can change around us, and sometimes within us, but that we’re committed to walking together throughout the journey. I’m really glad that I get to look at it every time I walk into the office before work.

I understand there’s a great story behind the coin / currency collection that you keep in your desk.

Yes! My grandfather gave me his coin collection before he passed, and it’s one of those things where I wish I would have asked what made him take it up as a hobby, and how he obtained some of this stuff. I know he never went on the internet (bless his heart), and he never mentioned going to shops or auctions to look for obscure Buffalo nickels from the early 1900s. Based on how comprehensive it is, it’s clear to me that he really loved doing it. 

Now, I keep it near my desk to pull out and examine any time I need to lose myself in history, or in thinking about my grandfather. I wonder about all of the hands throughout time that these coins and bills passed through. Conceptually, I hate money and all of the power that billionaires who have a lot of it can wield (often to negative effect), but I really enjoy handling this old currency. It’s lost to time and is no longer accepted as legal tender in society, but it still holds a lot of value to me.

Photographs by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Allison Johnson is the smartphone reviewer for The Verge, along with, as she says, “a bit of telecom on the side, which means I am a professional phone user.” She came to The Verge from DPReview, where she covered digital cameras and smartphone cameras.

That looks like a cozy space. Where in your home is it?

It’s in our bedroom. When my husband and I moved into our house, we were two people who both worked outside of the home. Now, we’re two people who both work from home full time plus a three-year-old, so cozy is an understatement! I actually move around the house a lot with my laptop throughout the day, so the desk is more of a home base.

Could you tell us a bit about the desk itself?

It’s a mini desk from West Elm. It was a lockdown purchase when everyone was buying desks and stuff, so things were a little chaotic. The first time it “arrived,” I opened the box, and there was a lampshade inside. The actual desk came a few months later.

And your chair (including the footrest)?

The chair is from Ikea, and it’s honestly not great, but the pillow helps. The footrest is by a company called Cushion Lab, and it’s so comfy. It’s kind of like a firm memory foam, and I knead my feet into it like a cat making biscuits.

I love how neatly you’ve got your cords arranged.

It wasn’t always this way! I need to have a few different kinds of chargers at the ready, since I switch smartwatches whenever I switch between Android and iOS, plus I’m never giving up my Lightning-charged iPhone 13 Mini. I used to fish the cables off the floor when I needed them but I finally got these stick-on cord holders, and I’ve been a changed woman ever since.

Tell us about the various tech devices you’re using.

I use my company-issued M1 MacBook Air, and the battery life is still so good that I never bring a charger if I’m going to work from somewhere else during the day. At my desk, I use this Logitech Pebble 2 keyboard and mouse that I bought purely based on looks but they’re quite nice. I use this Rain Design laptop stand, which is very sturdy. I bought the fixed version rather than the adjustable and was a little worried I wouldn’t like it, but it’s been great. I also have the infamous Brother laser printer and haven’t had to buy new toner for it in the five years I’ve been using it to print shipping labels. It rules.

Logitech Pebble 2 Combo

A slim and portable mouse and keyboard combo, lightweight and made with recycled plastic.

Where to Buy:

• $59.99 $49.99 at Amazon
• $59.99 at Logitech

I see you’ve got separate storage for your phone review units.

Again, it wasn’t always this way. Unless a company wants their review device back right away, I like to keep them for about a year after the review to revisit them and use them for comparisons. But everything eventually goes back to the manufacturer, unless they specifically don’t want it — in which case I bring it to a center that will either refurbish and reuse them or recycle them. I was keeping them in their boxes until I saw some other phone reviewers had them organized in neat little stands, so I got one, and I’m not sure how I lived without it before. 

That’s a lovely lamp!

It gives off this nice orange glow that is essential in the winter when it starts getting dark at 3:30PM. Also, I like that I can use it to let the neighborhood know if the British are coming by land or by sea.

Like many of our colleagues, you also use a paper notebook. Do you have a preference for a certain type?

I’m an absolute sucker for a Moleskine notebook.

Whose work of art is that on the wall next to your desk? (Just above your name-tag collection.)

That’s the work of my son Lennox, approximately age two at that point, I think. You think you’re not going to be a “kid-art-at-your-desk” person until you are.

As a Marx Brothers fan, I couldn’t help noticing the picture of Groucho above the chest of drawers.

I guess other kids in high school were going to parties and stuff while I was at home watching every Marx Brothers movie I could get my hands on. Duck Soup is an all-timer but A Night at the Opera is a close second. I sort of stole this picture from an ex, though I think he knew about it and let me take it. But if you want it back, I’ll send it to you, Matt.

Is there anything we didn’t cover that you’d like to add?

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge.

What exactly is a producer? Well, according to Nick Statt, who is senior producer on The Verge’s Decoder podcast with Nilay Patel, “the word ‘producer’ means a lot of things in a lot of different contexts.” In his case — here at The Verge and in the world of audio — it means he and coproducer Kate Cox run the show’s editorial operations and logistics. “That includes doing the majority of the scheduling and planning, selecting and booking guests, and writing scripts and packaging episodes from the start of a pitch to when it goes out to your podcast player of choice alongside The Verge’s website.”

Prior to working at The Verge, Nick was a writer and reporter for 10 years, covering a variety of different beats — mostly gaming, social media companies, and San Francisco-based startups. But after spending most of the 2010s in California, he says, “I moved back to my hometown of Rochester in western New York at the start of covid, and I’ve been remote ever since. That has meant putting a lot more time and effort into my home setup to make it a space I want to spend time in for the majority of my days.” 

We asked Nick more about his setup.

That looks like a really comfortable space. Where in your house is it?

This is our second bedroom in a three-story townhome we rent here in Rochester. My fiancee is a therapist, and she thankfully has a much cozier space she rents nearby for seeing clients, which means I was able to turn this into an office and gaming room. It gets great sunlight in the morning, which my cat (and my plants) love. We live in a pretty sprawling apartment and townhouse complex right near one of Rochester’s biggest parks and away from a lot of busier areas. So it tends to be quiet and peaceful, which is also good for long work sessions and for recording audio. 

Could you tell us about the desk itself?

The desk I have is a bamboo Jarvis Fully, which seemed like the best yet most affordable standing desk I could get my hands on in 2020, when everyone went remote. It’s not as large as I’d like; I might upgrade at some point in the future for some more surface area. But I’ve disassembled and reassembled it about five times now, and it’s worked flawlessly for years, so I’m quite happy with it. 

It looks like Herman Miller acquired Fully at some point, and a lot of people don’t seem quite as happy with the product as they used to. It also now costs quite a bit more than what I paid for it five years ago. So if I do ever upgrade to a larger standing desk, I’ll have to shop around for some other alternatives. 

And your chair?

The chair is a custom Herman Miller Embody, which I ordered at a really generous discount in 2021 from what’s known as a design-and-build company in New York City, thanks to a helpful tip from a friend. These companies effectively act like wholesale retailers of office furniture, and if you email them directly, they’ll sometimes just sell you a one-off item for cheaper than MSRP. 

I’m assuming at the height of covid, authorized Herman Miller dealers — architectural and interior design firms and so on — were trying to offload a lot of unused inventory. I was thankfully able to still get the “canyon” color scheme on it, which can be a little bit harder to find (and pricier) if you buy from a consumer retailer or authorized reseller. 

I’m extremely happy with it, and I don’t expect to ever have to buy another type of chair. It’s done wonders for some very persistent back pain of mine, and I highly recommend it if you sit too much for a living. I did order a headrest separately as the Embody doesn’t come with one. It’s from the company Atlas Headrest, and that’s been well worth it for longer work sessions. 

Tell us about the various tech devices you’re using. 

My favorite part of the setup is, of course, the keyboard. It’s a Rama Works M60-A in a Lunar New Year Edition color scheme. I had already begun dabbling in the niche mechanical keyboard community around 2019 for a related Verge project. When the pandemic hit, I needed a few extra indoor hobbies to go deeper on, and this one was right there waiting for me. I spent a lot of time researching what I wanted, and I found that Rama Works really nailed the combination of high build quality and craftsmanship while also having versatility, so I could use it for office work and gaming — though it did take getting used to the 60 percent setup, as you’re missing quite a few keys.

It cost more than I’d like to admit and took forever to arrive, but I’ve used it daily for four years now and still really enjoy it. I’ve done a few customizations, mostly installing NovelKeys Cream switches and quieter stabilizers, and I’ve swapped out the keycaps quite a few times before landing on my most recent ones. I also paired it with a matching red USB-C cable from the peripheral company Glorious. 

A lot of my other gear is fairly standard. I use a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro as my primary work computer, and I pair it with a Logitech M720 wireless mouse. I have a Shure MV7 microphone, Logitech Brio webcam, and Sony MDR-7506 monitor headphones for any audio and recording work, as we mostly record remotely using the platform Riverside, and those really cover most of the bases. I have a TP-Link Deco mesh node that I keep on the desk, which lets me hard wire in my gaming desktop and also gives me pretty stellar wireless in the upstairs of my apartment. (Our townhome has fiber internet, which is a godsend.) I also use an Anker USB-C docking station, which lets me keep a half dozen accessories plugged in at the same time, and a Belkin 3-in-1 wireless charger for my Apple devices. 

Logitech M720 Triathlon

A comfortable, fast-scrolling wireless mouse with a long (24-month) battery life.

Where to Buy:

• $45.1 at Amazon

As for the gaming station, my PC is an older Maingear Vybe, a prebuilt I purchased in 2021 with an Nvidia 3070 Ti and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. I was really impressed with Maingear’s build quality and customer service, and I don’t do too much intensive PC gaming outside of older multiplayer shooters (like Destiny 2 and now Marvel Rivals), indie games, and the occasional new Game Pass release. So it’s held up well these past few years. 

I use a Glorious Model O wireless mouse with it alongside the Halo Infinite-themed Xbox Elite 2 controller and a 27-inch LG QHD UltraGear monitor. I also have a HyperX Cloud wireless headset that I use exclusively for gaming. The only real hitch in the whole setup is having to manually swap the keyboard back and forth when I want to switch stations, though I’m sure there is likely an easier way to handle that. 

Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2

The Xbox Elite Series 2 is easily one of our favorite controllers at The Verge. It’s an improvement on the already excellent Elite controller, with deep customization, optional rear paddle buttons, a swappable D-pad, and analog sticks that allow you to tailor its layout to suit your play style.

Where to Buy:

• $199.99 $157.95 at Microsoft
• $199.99 $134.99 at Walmart
• $199.99 $170.99 at Best Buy

That’s a great deskpad.

Giant mousepads, or deskpads, as the keyboard hobbyists call them, are definitely a fun way to add a lot more flair to a workstation, and I’ve collected a handful of them since getting deeper into the keyboard community. 

This particular one is a Takashi Murakami collaboration with the esports organization Faze Clan. I am not really a Faze fan by any means, but I am a huge Murakami fan. So I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add some of his art to my desk setup. This deskpad is a modified print of Murakami’s famous “Flowers.” If you’re looking for a deskpad of your own, good places to start are NovelKeys or Omnitype.

Between that, and the chair, and the computer, and the keyboard, that’s a lot of red. (Except, of course, for the rubber ducky…)

I definitely didn’t set out to have a red color scheme going on, but it did happen slowly after I got my hands on my Rama Works keyboard and just really got into the aesthetics of my setup. I found the red PC case from a secondhand seller online, and Maingear was nice enough to let me ship it in to use in my PC build. And of course, the chair and other accessories felt like they would be a nice and natural fit. It also helps that a lot of gaming-centric gear seems to utilize the color red.

The rubber duck is a toy version of the Ōtori-Sama bathhouse spirits from Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away I got as a Christmas gift last year. A good addition to any desk, in my opinion.

So — you play the guitar?

I used to play a lot more guitar and do more bedroom music production, but it’s been a little hard to keep up with these past several years. I still mess around with the Fender Jaguar I have from time to time, but it was a whole lot easier during the pandemic, which is when I bought the Pioneer DJ controller and began to teach myself some production software. Now that I work in audio professionally, I’m considering getting back into it to learn more professional-grade editing apps like Audition and Pro Tools and to practice more recording techniques. 

Those are very different pieces of art you have over your desk.

My fiancee and I have collected a great deal of art over the years. I usually like to keep a lot of the sci-fi, gaming, and pop culture art in my office, including one of my favorites: Olly Moss’ Breaking Bad giclee print set, which you can see on the right side of the back wall. I love Olly Moss’ artwork, and I’ve collected quite a few of his pop culture doodle sets like this one. But the Breaking Bad one remains my favorite of the bunch. 

I also have some art I’ve collected from some of my favorite artists featured in the mobile game Marvel Snap, including a Dan Hipp print featuring Doctor Doom and other villains. I have an Elden Ring print that I love framed on the right there, and then, of course, some Verge prints I’ve collected from our very talented photography and art teams over the many years I’ve worked here. 

And, of course, you must introduce us to your cat.

My cat’s name is General Bean Sprout, which is not a name we chose but is indeed a name we absolutely have grown to appreciate. We call him Sprout for short. We adopted him in the fall of 2023 from an animal shelter here in the Rochester area known as Lollypop Farm, which gave him that name, as little information about his prior living situation was available. He was a terribly scared and anxious cat when we adopted him. Over the course of many months, he’s gone from hiding from the very sight of us in the room to now cuddling with us virtually any chance he can get. 

He loves to say hello to me every morning by jumping up on the desk and rubbing his face into mine, and he spends most of his time during the day snoozing in his cat tree facing the window. Thankfully, he does not like to mess with any of the gear on my desk, but he’s quite fond of battling loose hair ties and yarn balls in the middle of the night. 

Kylie Robison is The Verge’s senior reporter covering artificial intelligence. Previously, she worked at Fortune, where she covered Twitter; before that, she covered software developer culture (“a beat,” she says, “I made up and loved”) for Business Insider. “I’ve always been obsessed with technology in an extremely online way,” she adds, “and The Verge is filled with people who are on the same wavelength.”

We asked Kylie to tell us a bit about her home office setup.

It looks like your office space is right outside the kitchen.

It is! I live in a studio, but when I tell people that, they say it’s a bit too big to be called that, so my friends and I joke that it’s a studio deluxe. My living room is also my bedroom, I have a dining nook that I use for my office, and my kitchen is right behind me.

Could you tell us a bit about the desk itself?

It’s a Mittzon desk from Ikea. I wanted something adjustable in a light oak color, and it has great cable management stuff in the back.

And your chair?

It’s a beat-to-death standard Amazon desk chair. I should probably upgrade soon…

Tell us about the various tech devices you’re using.

I just bought a new MacBook Pro M4 that I adore. I have a Dell Ultra HD 4K Monitor (that’s no longer available) and an Asus ProArt monitor. I have no idea how long I’ve had either or where I even got them from. I have a pair of first-gen Apple AirPod Max headphones. I have two pairs of Ray-Ban Metas. (One is a limited-edition pair.) Last but not least, a Vergecast-mandated Audio-Technica microphone (they told me my Blue Yeti sucked).

You’ve got an enormous amount of interesting stuff there. For example, the leafy pad you have under your keyboard is lovely.

Thank you! I thought the aesthetic was nice, I actually have another in a different color depending on my mood. It’s a nice addition to add some color.

Who is the smiling pink purse?

That’s Kirby! A Nintendo character that holds all my Micron pens.

Tell us about that glass achievement award just under the monitor.

I got that in college. I was raised by my mom, who didn’t go to college, which qualified me as a first-generation student. I got an achievement award thanks to my work for my student publication, The State Hornet, where I wrote about technology in covid times. I think it helped that I had an okay GPA, too.

Are those family photos on the wall?

Yes! The old-school portrait is my grandma, aka the love of my life. There’s also my mom’s high-school portrait, where she wears a T-shirt that says “girls kick ass!” — probably my favorite photo up there. There’s my grandpa holding me as a baby, photos of my friends, my preschool class, my Burning Man ID, and a wood-burned Dril tweet.

And that large CD-R?

I saw it online, and it was the best impulse purchase of my life. So cool.

I had to look up those Sonny Angel figures. Is there a story behind them?

Sometimes you need some little friends to get you through your days. I just think they’re cute! They’re also really popular with young women — I live by Japantown in San Francisco, so they’re easy for me to buy.

I’m fascinated by all the interesting stuff you have on the shelves. Not to mention the neon face….

That face is Majora’s Mask from The Legend of Zelda! There’s a lot of Zelda stuff throughout my house, Breath of the Wild might be my favorite video game ever. My shelves also have a 3D-printed Moo Deng, the biting baby hippo; a few signed books from the industry; a Lego Nezuko from Demon Slayer; my college degree; a pothos plant; an AI toy (that has yet to be mass released); the dried flowers from a friend’s celebration of life; an ice cream scoop that’s engraved “Slack scoop” to commemorate all my scoopin’— there’s a lot to love up there.

And last but not least, please introduce us to your cat!

That’s Fang! My grandpa likes to call him Fangster. Fun fact: I named him Fang on a whim, and four years after I got him, the vet said he was having teeth problems that would require the removal of quite a few. In the end, the only teeth he got to keep were his fangs. Weird, huh?

Anything else we didn’t cover that you’d like to add?

Whoever sees this — don’t yell at me about my cord setup. I gave up so quickly. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Photography by Kylie Robison / The Verge